And here is yet another question about dining in Beijing:

I have read about people booking a week ahead for popular places like the duck restaurants. Is this necessary or can I have the hotel do all of my reservations after I arrive in Beijing?

It's Li Qun - many love this place because it's set back in a hutong and it feels "authentic." I think it's really gone downhill in the past few years. It got too much press, the owner tried to charge journalists for interviews (!)... it may have a shabby hutong locale but it's filled with tourists. Weird as it sounds, I bet you'll see more locals at Made in China. And making a reservation a day or so in advance will suffice. There's no need to overthink this!

Another vote for Made in China. The duck was great!

The original QuanJude is on 32 Qianmen Dajie. The menu is bilingual (Chinese and English) so there is no problems on reading the menu. It is touristy, but most of those tourists are most likely to be Chinese (domestic) visitors/tourists anyway so you are still in a restaurant with mostly Chinese people anyway (as opposed to mostly foreigners) and in a Beijing kaoya (roast duck)restaurant that is famous to Chinese people.
Another type of cuisine that you get in Beijing is Mongolian HotPot - the Dong Lai Shun restaurant is a famous one for this - there are several branches in the city. The ones that I've been to have been in the WangFuJing area - I think Fodors guide book may mention it.

Thanks, ABC.

Now what do you all have to say about THIS restaurant:


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...17/wfood17.xml

EK:

My official answer to your eerie discovery:

We pass!!

Stu T.

Stu, I agree with you. Pretty unusual though, right?!!